With lyrics co-written by Lennon and McCartney and music mostly by McCartney, the idea for Getting Better came from a favourite phrase of Jimmie Nicol, The Beatles' stand-in drummer for eight days of their 1964 world tour.

According to Beatles biographer Hunter Davies, the phrase popped into McCartney's head one day in 1967 while he was walking his sheepdog Martha in Hampstead.

Getting Better I wrote on my magic Binder, Edwards and Vaughan piano in my music room. It had a lovely tone, that piano, you'd just open the lid and there was such a magic tone, almost out of tune, and of course the way it was painted added to the fun of it all.

It's an optimistic song. I often try and get on to optimistic subjects in an effort to cheer myself up and also, realising that other people are going to hear this, to cheer them up too. And this was one of those. The 'angry young man' and all that was John and I filling in the verses about schoolteachers. We shared a lot of feelings against teachers who had punished you too much or who hadn't understood you or who had just been bastard generally.

Paul McCartney
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles

Although the title is upbeat and positive, the song deals with anger, unruliness at school and violence towards women. It is likely that the darker edge came from Lennon, who was familiar with all three traits.

It is a diary form of writing. All that 'I used to be cruel to my woman, I beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved' was me. I used to be cruel to my woman, and physically – any woman. I was a hitter. I couldn't express myself and I hit. I fought men and I hit women. That is why I am always on about peace, you see. It is the most violent people who go for love and peace. Everything's the opposite. But I sincerely believe in love and peace. I am a violent man who has learned not to be violent and regrets his violence. I will have to be a lot older before I can face in public how I treated women as a youngster.

John Lennon
All We Are Saying, David Sheff

Much like We Can Work It Out, Getting Better explores the differences in personality between the two songwriters.

I was just sitting there doing 'Getting better all the time' and John just said in his laconic way, 'It couldn't get no worse,' and I thought, Oh, brilliant! This is exactly why I love writing with John... It was one of the ways we'd write. I'd have the song quite mapped out and he'd come in with a counter-melody, so it was a simple ordinary song.

Paul McCartney
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles

In the studio

Recording began on Thursday 9 March. Seven takes were recorded of the rhythm track, being made up of guitars, bass and drums, plus piano from George Martin – played by the strings of the instrument being directly struck.

The following day George Harrison added a droning tambura, McCartney overdubbed his bass part and Ringo added more drums.

Getting Better received its vocals on 21 March. Hunter Davies was at the session, and noted how the backing vocals sounded "flat, grainy and awfully disembodied. I remember thinking, 'Why am I such a big fan of theirs, why do I think they're good singers? They're completely out of tune!"

It is not known whether the out-of-tune vocals were left in the final mix – certainly some of the harmonies are off-key, though these may have been deliberately varispeeded. Either way, perhaps The Beatles had bigger things to worry about: a short way into the session, Lennon announced he was feeling ill and was taken onto the roof of Abbey Road by George Martin.

I was aware of them smoking pot, but I wasn't aware that they did anything serious. In fact, I was so innocent that I actually took John up to the roof when he was having an LSD trip, not knowing what it was. If I'd known it was LSD, the roof would have been the last place I would have taken him.

He was in the studio and I was in the control room, and he said he wasn't feeling too good. So I said, 'Come up here,' and asked George and Paul to go on overdubbing the voice. 'I'll take John out for a breath of fresh air,' I said, but of course I couldn't take him out the front because there were 500 screaming kids who'd have torn him apart,. So the only place I could take him to get fresh air was the roof. It was a wonderful starry night, and John went to the edge, which was a parapet about 18 inches high, and looked up at the stars and said, 'Aren't they fantastic?' Of course, to him I suppose they would have been especially fantastic. At the time they just looked like stars to me.

George Martin
Anthology

In 1970 John Lennon recounted the incident:

I never took [LSD] in the studio. Once I did, actually. I thought I was taking some uppers and I was not in the state of handling it. I took it and I suddenly got so scared on the mike. I said, 'What is it? I feel ill.' I thought I felt ill and I thought I was going cracked. I said I must go and get some air. They all took me upstairs on the roof, and George Martin was looking at me funny, and then it dawned on me that I must have taken some acid.

I said, 'Well, I can't go on. You'll have to do it and I'll just stay and watch.' I got very nervous just watching them all , and I kept saying, 'Is this all right?' They had all been very kind and they said, 'Yes, it's all right.' I said, 'Are you sure it's all right?' They carried on making the record.

John Lennon
Rolling Stone, 1970

The song was finished on 23 March, when new vocals were recorded, along with congas played by Ringo Starr.

Andy: yes, definitely there is an electric piano in the left channel — I’m not even listening to the remastered version and I can hear it, stomping along on the quarter note beats along with the rest. I was wondering why it wasn’t credited, either…

According to Emerick (and Massey), George Martin also added a few notes on a virginal (“which he owned and brought in specially”) after the overdub session when George played the tamboura and Ringo added some open hi-hat.
Here, There and Everywhere (London, 2007), p. 176.

Listen for the high G note ringing out through verse one in the left channel (00:10 onwards). The virginal is also ringing throughout the third verse (I used to be cruel to my woman…) alongside the tamboura.

John’s “It couldn’t get no worse,” is brilliant, and I love his ironic singsong vocalizing “No I can’t complain..oh-ohh…oh-ohh…” John the comedian doing sort of a piss-take on the small-talk cliches people use instead of bluntly saying “Things generally suck right at the moment. And you?” The same joke a few songs later only more deadpan this time: “Nothing to say but whaaat a day/How’s yer boy been?”

John’s input was great. He definitely contributed positively to many of Paul’s songs. I wish John had worked with George more on his songs. I know John contends he “helped” George out a bit on Taxman’s lyrics, but other than that, I don’t know that he ever contributed to George’s music (other than his instrumental contributions during recording sessions). Some of George’s songs, though quite good, could have used some levity, something to lighten the mood a bit. Nobody was better at that than John, though George sure gave Lennon a run for his money in the sarcasm department.

Another reason why this site is great. Not being a musician, I just assumed that it was the guitars and piano providing what the Fender Rhodes is also playing.
One of the aspects I enjoy most about this song is the droning tambura that begins the third verse, slowing the tempo a bit before returning it back up to speed.

Does anyone know what guitar effect George used to get that high, crisp sound in the right channel? It sounds so pure, rare and overall just amazing. Also, what is the instrument that ends the song? This instrument being played also has a very high pitch.

To many people it doesn’t matter if it is a Rhodes or Wurlitzer in any given song from the 60´s, but to me it does. I’ve tried to dedicate myself to the history of the great man Harold Rhodes and his invention the Rhodes Electric Piano ( http://www.fenderrhodes.com ) that I love. The Rhodes has played an incredibly important role for music since it was introduced at NAMM 1965. Almost every day I find a faulty reference, and I constantly try to set the record straight and help correcting the errors. Right now I face a humongous task when I realize that almost everything written about the Beatles is full of mistakes. The Rhodes was first used in January 1969 on “Get Back” and it was played by Billy Preston who joined the Beatles the same day. The Rhodes used was a gift from Don Randall of the Fender Corporation, and was sent to Apple studios during autumn 1968. All songs recorded before this uses other electric pianos like Wurlitzer, Hohner, RMI and others. F.Y.I / Freddan

The only electric piano I’ve seen them using in pics is the Hohner Pianet, which they used a lot. This kybrd can sound similar to a Wurlitzer especially, on the low end.
I always thought it might be a Wurly on this song but never saw one in studio pics.
I owned both a Wurly model 200 & a couple Rhodes pianos so I’m familiar with both.
Tell Me What you See & The Night Before are good examples of the Pianet where you can hear it clearly in the mix. But you’re correct– they didn’t use the Rhodes, AFAIK, until Billy used one on LIB.

It’s not true. McCartney first took LSD with Tara Browne, who died in December 1966 (see Many Years From Now for an account of the trip). It’s generally thought that his first trip was around November 1966.

McCartney once (in Rolling Stone, 1984, IIRC) said the Getting Better incident was his first time, but I think he meant it was the first time with another Beatle. In Many Years From Now he said:

“I thought, Maybe this is the moment where I should take a trip with him. It’s been coming for a long time. It’s often the best way, without thinking about it too much, just slip into it. John’s on it already, so I’ll sort of catch up. It was my first trip with John, or with any of the guys. We stayed up all night, sat around and hallucinated a lot.”

From playing Beatles Rock Band over the years, it’s interesting to me that *every time* you come to the “I used to be cruel to my woman…” lyrics, the video focuses on Paul and only Paul in an extreme close-up. As this article states, John owned up to his mean streak, so good for him. But this dictate strikes me as another piece of Yokoian revisionism.

Do you seriously think that Yoko had something to do with the graphics of the game? It’s probably like that because Paul has the lead vocal in the song. I think the designers were not looking THAT deep into things like “Who wrote which lyrics?”
Confirmation bias against Yoko is strong.

Love this song from the time I first obtained”Sgt Pepper”. A great example of Paul McCartney and John Lennon’s contrasting styles and attitude creating a great song. John Lennon’s line, “I used to be cruel to my woman….”etc, is the making of this song. John Lennon’s brutal honesty about his own past in explaining the line is so typical of his tell it like it is and was approach to life.

Hello.
I love writing on this lovely Beatles Bible page about the songs I love… and I love everything on “Sgt. Pepper.”
“Getting Better” is a work of genius… Confessions of beating and cruelty were rare in 1967. To say that this was wrong was so fabulous. To confess to having done it and then to show regret and promise not to do it again? Absolutely fabulous. I can’t see why people don’t see the evolution from “Rubber Soul”‘s “I’d rather see you dead” to the humanity of “Getting Better”. Anyone who prefers the earlier songs has to justify excusing that kind of violence towards women, violence in general, and hatred… Yet there are many who actually prefer the earlier albums. Well, this is one reason I feel that “Sgt. Pepper” is so much better. Well, it IS so much better. My opinion, anyway. Cheers.

Yes, I admit “Getting Better” is one of my favs. The structure is perfect.

After the Beatles broke up, there were John and Paul camps. We were mostly in the John camp. But it felt like a divorce in the family. Now, it’s easy to appreciate the synergy and brilliance of both of them.

My fav Beatles songs are still mostly John songs, but “Getting Better” just stands out as one of the best Beatles songs to me.

Assuming John and George on backing vocals; they carry out the “s” sound on the end of the word “worse.”

When Paul sings “yes” toward the end of the song (the greatest “yes” in Rock) the two “s” sounds from “yes” and “worse” blend and carry out the “s” sound brilliantly.

I don’t know if they planned that but it is pure brilliance in a brilliant song.

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